Over the last few years we have all become accustomed to “tightening our belts” and watching what we spend. The current state of the worldwide economy has filtered down to the average household and there are now very few of us out there who can afford to waste money. Whilst an investment in education is always an investment in your future, never has it been more important to ensure your hard earned money is put towards a recognised qualification that will genuinely improve your prospects in the workplace or develop your skills in your own private practice.

Unfortunately over the last few years numerous distance learning colleges have been set up to do nothing more than scam their students. These so called colleges are in fact nothing more than “shell” companies who have no interest in the well being of their students. Whilst these charlatans may appear to be legitimate home learning colleges, unfortunately they are not and they do nothing more than tarnish the reputation of legitimate distance education colleges like Stonebridge Associated Colleges and the real benefits of home learning.

This article will hopefully show you how to spot a scam college and furthermore provide you with a checklist on the things you should be asking yourself before registering with a home learning college.

We all know the benefits of distance learning (here are just a few):

• You don’t need any prior qualifications
• You can start and finish when you want
• It offers you amazing flexibility
• With distance learning you set the pace
• There’s no peer pressure or public embarrassment
• Distance learning costs will be much lower than college costs

However with these benefits come risks that scam colleges use to exploit their students. Below are some of the key areas and questions that you need to ask any distance learning college before you decide to embark on your educational journey with them:

1. Accreditation Accreditation Accreditation – This is one of the most important things for any student to ask their distance learning provider; Are you and your courses independently accredited? A lot of scam colleges will say they are and will mention a range of “woolly” professional organisations that they belong to. This is simply not good enough. The training provider should be independently accredited by an Awarding body that is fully recognised by Ofqual the government body in charge of regulating qualifications. Awarding bodies such as Edexcel, City and Guilds, NCFE, CACHE and Active IQ to name but a few. Furthermore on completion of your home study course you should also receive a separate certificate from the awarding body as evidence of you completing your course.
    
2. All learning providers in the UK should be able to offer you a UK Provider Reference Number. The UK Register of Learning Providers is a 'one-stop' portal to be used by government departments, agencies, learners, and employers to share key information about learning providers (http://www.ukrlp.co.uk).
    
3. All distance learning providers should offer a money back guarantee.
    
4. Many scam colleges are actually run by one or two people who simply work in it in the evenings away from their primary source of employment. The easiest way to spot these is to try and give the college a ring throughout the normal working day. If you are told that “the lines are extremely busy” or that “you should leave a message and will be called back” you should be very weary indeed. Professional home learning colleges should at least work Monday to Friday 9am – 5pm and should always be available on the phone to deal with any queries that you may have.
    
5. Every college worth its salt should offer you unlimited tutorial support throughout the duration of your course. Many colleges will limit the amount of support you can access or worse still limit it to 12 – 18 months. This is simply not good enough, you never know what can happen in the space of 12 months, and if you have to postpone your studies for any reason you certainly do not want to find that your course is no longer supported or that you are required to pay more to continue with your distance learning course.
    
6. There is plenty of hype around “Social Media” nowadays. It is critical that your distance learner provider has a current and active Social Media campaign. Sites such as Facebook and Twitter are excellent resources for potential students to use in order to speak to other students about their experiences with the learning provider and to see the number of students that the learning provider is engaging with.
    
7. It is always worth having a look at independent review sites before you sign up with any college, this will give you an independent and impartial view of the experiences other students have had with the college. However beware; if there are only a few reviews and they are all glowing then there may be some fabrication at work.

You may ask yourself what do Stonebridge Colleges offer to avoid you falling into a scam?

1. Stonebridge Associated Colleges are fully accredited by various awarding bodies including: CACHE, Active IQ and NCFE. On completion of our courses you will receive a certificate from the awarding body confirming that the course is independently accredited at the level of learning that you have chosen to study. This is proof to you the student, that we are subjected to rigours quality standards and are not simply “regulating ourselves” and printing off our own certificates.
    
2. Our UK Provider Reference Number is 10006352.
    
3. Stonebridge Associated Colleges offer a full 7 day money back guarantee in case you are not entirely satisfied with your course. So if for any reason you are not happy with your course simply return it to the college and we will process your refund for you.
    
4. At any one time Stonebridge Associated Colleges have 10+ course advisors available to take your call during normal office hours. Our students also have access to a dedicated and friendly team of administrators and course advisors who offer sound and professional guidance and advice, this ensures that a Stonebridge Associated Colleges student never feels neglected and a Stonebridge Associated Colleges student always succeeds. Outside of office hours our team respond to any e-mail queries they receive to ensure you receive a response to your query in the shortest possible time.
    
5. Stonebridge Associated Colleges are one of the only distance learning colleges who offer unlimited tutorial support throughout the duration of your studies. We impose no time limits or pressures on you to complete your course material. Your course will not expire, and it will not become invalid until you have successfully completed it.
    
6. Stonebridge Associated Colleges encourage all of our students to use our Social Media platforms, furthermore we often run prize giveaways, post behind the scene photos and publish interesting facts about our college through sites such as Facebook and Twitter. We would encourage any potential student of the college to visit our Facebook page and follow us on Twitter so that you can get a true flavour of the college and the students who make up our learning community.
    
7. We encourage all of our students to publish their experiences with the college on review sites during and after their course. We appreciate that these reviews are meant to be impartial and that some students may have had issues, where these are reported to us, we go out of our way to resolve them. If you would like to read some independent and impartial reviews on Stonebridge Colleges, please see:

• Review Centre
• Hot Courses
• Ciao
• Dooyoo

Having read the above we hope you will be able to make an informed decision on the provider of possibly one of the most important decisions of your life. Please remember that if you ever require any assistance, one of our friendly course advisors or tutors will always be available to help. All you need to do is contact us at the college.

One final tip: If in doubt, why not contact the British Institute for Learning and Development ® (BILD) to ensure that your learner provider is registered with them. All distance learner providers should have up to date membership with the BILD.

Choose Stonebridge Colleges to avoid falling prey to a scam!